Work, training and social sensibilities: analysis from the experiences of fit-fluencers

Abstract

The article aims to refect on the transformations that have taken place in the “world of work”, based on their connections with the way in which subjects “train themselves”. In the interstices between “work time” and “leisure/training time”, some important characteristics of current body politics (the ways in which societies accept the distribution and use of bodies and their energies) become visible. Specifcally, we explore here the emerging phenomenon of “ft-infuencers”, contemporary referents of the “virtual” scene (social networks) through the promotion of sports and eating routines. In this sense, our corpus of analysis has been constructed from an ethnographic work located in Argentina, from which narratives that these actors present in social networks (Virtual Ethnography), and in situations of in-depth interviews, are recovered. These narratives allow us to understand the social sensibilities associated with these practices, enabling us to link the emergence and expansion of ft-infuencers with a process of renewal of the “spirit of capitalism” (sensu Weber), which would translate into an updating of the “political economy of morality” (Scribano in ¡Disfrútalo! Una aproximación a la economía política de la moral desde el consumo, Elalephcom, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, 2015). To be clearer, “political economy of morality” refers to a series of mechanisms of social domination and exploitation of bodily energies, which are legitimised as moral principles associated with enjoyment through consumption. The fnal refections we present are oriented towards thinking about how the new “digital gurus” of routines and “homemade” prescriptions become guarantors of the organisation of work, by establishing parameters for the management of bodies and emotions that are associated to a “renewed” order of accumulation.